There is something magical about Friday afternoons. The street’s commotion is slowly fading away, and is replaced with tender and soft clouds of calmness, that descend all over town. Cooking aromas rise from the neighbours, letting our senses imagine what great meals are being cooked for the Friday night family dinner. All this atmosphere excites me a great deal, and that’s one of the reasons Friday afternoons are my preferred baking time.

The shaped challah, before rising

And after rising… chubby and cute

In my early years I’ve never been very much of a family person, and most of the time I used to look for outdoor activities. And then there was this moment when I started enjoying and appreciating that nice family time at dinners, and now I’m a big fan. Those holiday times, when folks at work are constantly complaining about that family overdose - these times are heavenly for me!

I’ve made this challah for the first time a couple of years ago, when we were about to go and dine with Avi’s family. Everyone, including me, loved it so much that there hasn’t been a dinner I haven’t brought it to ever since. And though I found many tempting challah recipes along the way, I wasn’t able to bring myself to try them, knowing that I’ve already got the winner in my hands.

Some notes and tips about the challah:

* You can use this dough also for making sweet rolls, which you can shape as you please - as regular round rolls, or in an 8 shape, a knot shape or simply braided, as the big challah shown here in the pics.

* Extra crunchiness - Avi prefers his challah with raisins. But this bread will also welcome dried cranberries, or walnuts or even chocolate chips. Add them to the dough after it has finished the first rising process, and you’ve taken all the air out of it.

* The recipe indicates to brush the bread with beaten egg before inserting it into the oven. This gives it a great intense color and contributes to a crunchier crust. But there are times when I prefer it less golden and less crunchy - and then I simply brush it with water, instead of the egg.

* Yeast - I know quite a lot of people that have yeastofobia. This may have been a reasonable fear 10 years ago, when the yeast weren’t of the quality they make them nowadays, and you had to jumpstart them using some sugar and water. Today there’s no need for that, and also no need for your fear. As long as you use the yeast before their “use by” date, and follow the recipe (that will usually tell you to add the yeast to the dough ingredients apart from the oil and salt, which could kill them), there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

* Yeast 2 - Most of the time I’m using active dry yeast, simply because they last longer. If I’m using just a part of a yeast package, I seal it as much as I can, and refrigerate it. That’s how I found it best to keep them.

* Converting fresh yeast to active dry yeast - you should use a third of the quantity of fresh yeast specified in the recipe when you want to use dry yeast instead.  If you want to convert the other way around - multiply the dry yeast quantity specified in the recipe by 2.5-3 in order to use fresh yeast.

Sweet Challah / Carine Goren
Makes 2 challah breads

Ingredients:
1 kg all-purpose flour
50 gr fresh yeast (or 17 gr active dry ones)
3/4 cup sugar (or 1/2 a cup if you prefer it less sweet)
2 eggs
1 3/4 - 2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp salt

1 egg, beaten, for brushing before baking (optional, see tips)
sesame

Directions:
1. Place the flour in a bowl and mix the yeast into it.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and knead at medium speed for about 10-12 minutes, until the dough is shiny, and sticks a bit to the bottom of the bowl, but isn’t sticky all in all.
3. Grease the surface of the dough with a little oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough doubles its volume.
4. Divide the dough into 2 even parts. Divide each part into 3 even parts, and roll each one of the into a stripe, and braid the 3 stripes of each challah together. If you want to do a more elaborate braid, made out of 5 stripes instead of 3, divide each one of the 2 dough parts into 5 even stripes. Then give numbers to the stripes from 1 to 5, pinch all the 5 stripes together on one of the ends, then put no. 1 over no. 3, then enumerate the stripes again in the new order and put (the new) no. 2 over no. 3. Enumerate the stripes again and put no.5 over no. 2, enumerate again and repeat the whole process (1 over 3 and so forth).
5. Place the shaped breads on a pan lined with parchment paper, and let rise until it doubles its volume.
6. Brush the breads with the beaten egg or with water (see tips), scatter sesame all over them, and bake in an oven preheated to 350F (180C) for about 35 minutes, or until golden (on all sides, bottom as well). Another good indication for knowing that the bread we’ve baked is ready, is to knock on its bottom, if the sound it makes is hollow, you can take it out of the oven.
7. Cool and serve.

Crustless pies and me are not good friends. I ignore their existence and they ignore mine, and in my eyes, this is a great relationship in this case. It’s just that a person that loves pastries in all shapes and forms such as myself, simply cannot enjoy just the filling of what could be a great quiche.

For Sharon’s (my sister in law as of last Wednesday) bachelorette party, I was asked to bring a crustless pie. Instinctively I started looking for a good quiche recipe. Since the primacy and recency effects work so well, I’ve decided to make this goat cheese and dried tomatoes quiche, which I last made only a week before that, when 2 very good friends of hours - Hadas and Yaron - came over for lunch.

This quiche recipe caught my eye in a very good Israeli pastry cookbook called “Sheshet pastries”. I was caught mostly because of its beautiful photo in the book, but also because of how simple it is to make it look so beautiful. Also, it tastes wonderful, and the recipe is very accurate, as are all the recipes I’ve tried from that book.

Some notes and tips about this quiche:

* Dried tomatoes - in Israel we have 2 kinds - marinated in olive oil or plain and simple dried tomatoes. Both are great for this quiche, but if you use the plain ones, marinate or brush them with a little olive oil before using them, so the ones that peek out from the filling will not burn during baking.

* Tips about making shortcrust can be found in the tips section of this post.

Goats cheese and dried tomatoes quiche / “Sheshet Pastries” cookbook
Makes a 10 inch quiche

Ingredients:
For the crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 flat tsp salt
150 gr cold butter, diced
1 egg
1-2 Tbsp water, if needed

For the filling:
250 ml heavy cream
3 eggs
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
salt
black pepper
1/2 cup dried tomatoes, chopped
200 gr soft goats cheese, sliced
cherry tomatoes brushed with olive oil, for decoration

Directions:
1. Prepare the crust: Process flour, salt and butter in short pulses in the food processor, until crumbly. Add in the egg and process in pulses only until a dough is formed. If the mixture is still crumbly, add in the water and process in pulses just until a dough is formed.
2. Flaten the dough, and form a flat circle out of it, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
3. Roll out the dough to a 1/2 cm thick sheet, cover the tart pan with it. Using a fork, make even holes over the whole bottom surface. Freeze for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
5. Blind bake the crust for about 10-15 minutes (it’s recommended to do it with some baking weights, for more info see tips here), until the crust only starts becoming golden.
6. Take the crust out of the oven and let cool. Meanwhile prepare the filling:
7. Beat the heavy cream together with the eggs. Sift the flour over the mixture, and beat until the mixture is uniform. Add in salt and pepper and mix them well.
8. Place the chopped dried tomatoes and sliced cheese onto the crust. Pour the egg mixture above it and decorate with the cherry tomatoes.
9. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the filling is firm and golden.

Every year when winter is right around the corner, Avi declares happily: “Let the soup season begin!”. This statement makes us both very happy, thinking that we are going to make dozens, if not hundreds of soups this upcoming winter. A few months later reality slaps us right in the face, realizing that the number of soups we’ve made isn’t the one we hoped for.

We’ve broken a new record last winter, when Michael, a friend from work who once worked as a cook for some of the better restaurants in Tel-Aviv, lent me the “Soup Bible“. As the name implies, this really IS a soup bible, with over 200 soup recipes, one looking yummier and more tempting than the other. Would you believe me when I say that we didn’t even try out one recipe from that book?! This year is gonna be different! (Yeah, yeah, we say that every year)…

A few weeks ago, I met a very very good friend of mine, with whom I’ve lost contact a couple of years ago. My fault. Yep, sadly I’m not so good at keeping in touch, even with people who are important to me, like Roni. A lot has happened in both our lives ever since, so Roni invited me to hers and her husband’s place, to catch up a bit. Since no social gathering is complete without something tasty to chew on, Roni offered me this great vegetables and groats soup she had made. I obviously asked for the recipe, and this soup was the one to open our soup season. And what a great opening it was!

The soup is real easy to make, very rich in flavor and vegetables, and the groats make it so thick and comforting - wonderful for a cold autumn evening. Go on, make it, and may us all have a great winter!

Some notes and tips about the soup:

* Roni says that you could add even more vegetables - according to your taste and cravings - such as pumpkin, zucchini, turnip, beetroot, etc… Just make sure to slice the vegetables into relatively big pieces, so they won’t fall apart during the cooking process.

* Chicken soup - this recipe calls for it, and let’s face it, we aren’t always up to making 2 soups for finally ending up with one. What I usually do is use powdered chicken soup and mix it in hot water - it does the trick wonderfully and quickly. If the MSG in those things is bothering you, nowadays they sell a natural version of those powdered soups - containing natural ingredients only. I use it and find it just fine.

* To my opinion, some alcohol addition can boost almost any dish. If you’re with me on that one, feel free to add 4-5 Tbsp of white wine between stages 5 and 6 in the recipe.

Vegetables and Groats Soup / Roni Schmitz
Makes 4-6 portions

Ingredients:
1 big onion
100 gr tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
2 medium sized potatoes, cubed into big cubes
3 big carrots, cut to stripes, lengthwise (we love carrots, so I’ve put some more)
1 parsley root, peeled and cut into quarters
1 celery root, peeled and cut into quarters
2 celery stalks, including leaves
1/2 parsley bundle (about 10 rich branches)
1/2 dill bundle
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup groats
chicken soup, until all vegetables are covered (I needed about 2 liters)
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Fry onion until starts to become golden.
2. Add in the tomato paste, stir, and let fry for several minutes, but make sure it doesn’t start to burn.
3. Add in the sugar and stir.
4. Add in all the ingredients on the list, except (and not including) the garlic. Stir well.
5. Add in the garlic and keep frying for a few more minutes.
6. Add in the chicken soup, until all the other ingredients are well covered. Add the groats.
7. Cook on medium flame until the vegetables soften. Lower the flame to the minimum and keep cooking for 30 more minutes.
8. Pour into serving plates and serve, recommended with some chopped parsley above it, or some chopped chives.

In other countries there are the falling leaves that fill the pavements with a wonderful variety of colors, and tell everyone that autumn is here. In Israel there are other signs, the first of them I run into each year, is a sign for me that the summer heat is finally behind us. Sometimes it’s the first rain, that makes me notice that seasons have changed, other times it’s when I wake up in the chilly early morning hours, looking for my blanket. But above all those, there is one thing, that when you see it filling up the stores, you no longer have any doubt about it - that would be the “Krembo” (which means “cream inside”). The Krembo is made of a cookie base, on top of it there is a vanilla flavored egg-whites foam, and all this is coated with a layer of chocolate. There are other variations for the filling besides vanilla, the most popular among them being mocha.

There are quite a few Krembo recipes all over the net and then some more in cookbooks, but none of them tempts me more than this original one. Yes, the store bought ones, wrapped with a thin layer of aluminium foil, the same one that a single taste from it fills your mouth with a tender silky cloud of goodness. Personally I prefer my Krembo vanilla flavored, but here in Israel, debates can go on and on about which is the best flavor - vanilla or mocha.

Somewhere along the way I found out that the Krembo’s filling is made out of unbaked egg-white foam. The disaster! I immediately stopped eating them, and haven’t for a really long time. Luckily I became interested in the pastry world a while back, it was then that I discovered that the egg-whites are being heated before beating them, to a temperature that kills most bacterias that can potentially reside in them. This revelation made me better my ways again, and so Krembo reappeared in my menu occasionally.

So, in honor of the most welcome autumn, here is a Krembo recipe, that is very close to the original one. I made the cookie base out of crashed petit-beurre biscuits, which I mixed with melted butter and with a little orange juice. They turned out yummy, with a delightful orange aroma. For the filling, I followed a recipe published by “Feldman”, a company that produces Krembo, and it turned out exactly like the original one. Finally, I also used Feldman’s recipe for the chocolate coating, although it turned out way too thick, so I diluted it with some oil. It turned out softer than the store bought one, but far better, because of the use of a good quality chocolate.

Some notes and tips about the Krembo:

* I made the base cookies too small, and so they weren’t able to hold the right amount of filling. I made them about 4 cm in diameter, and I recommend making them about 6-8 cm length diameter.

* The best way to fill the cookies is to pipe the filling upon them. It’s quite easy, not to worry. Just hold the piping bag straight above the center of the cookie, and press it until the whole cookie’s base fills up. Then slightly lift up your hand and pipe another layer, and so on, until there is enough filling on the cookie.
Not in a piping mood? Simply take a spoonful of filling and place it on top of the cookie. Then use the spoon to neatly arrange the filling.

* How do we coat the Krembos? By simply dipping them inside the chocolate mixture.

Krembo / Inspired by a recipe by “Feldman” company
For 40 small Krembos or 30 medium ones

Ingredients:
For the cookies:
170 gr petit-beurre biscuits
100 gr butter, melted
2-3 Tbsp orange juice

For the filling:
5 egg-whites
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp gelatin powder
3 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating:
300 gr bittersweet chocolate
100 gr butter
Vegetable oil, for diluting the mixture

Directions:
1. Prepare the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
2. Crash the biscuits in a food processor. Add the melted butter and mix until crumbly and moist. Add in 2 Tbsp of orange juice and mix until homogenized. Then check if the dough is now firm enough in order to take a small bit and make a sphere out of it that will hold its shape. If not, add another Tbsp of juice, otherwise skip it.
3. Roll out the dough, and cut cookies from it, using a cup or a round cookie cutter.
4. Place the cookies on a pan lined with baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden.
5. Meanwhile prepare the filling: In a double boiler heat together egg-whites and sugar while stirring, until most of the sugar melts (60C temperature, if you have a sugar thermometer). Remove from heat.
6. Place the gelatin in a small bowl, along with the water. Let stand for 15 minutes. Place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then stir the mixture. Beat the egg whites mixture and add the gelatin and vanilla extract to it. Keep beating the whites until the mixture cools down and the foam is stable and stiff (stiff peaks).
7. Pipe the filling on top of each cookie (see tips). Freeze the uncoated Krembos until you finish preparing the coating.
8. Prepare the coating: Melt together the chocolate and the butter. If you’re doing it in the microwave, make sure to do it in 30 seconds intervals, in order to not burn the chocolate. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes. Now is the time to dilute the mixture, by adding in some oil. Add in the vegetable oil, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the coating is thin enough to allow us to dip the semi-frozen Krembos in it. Dip each Krembo in the coating, and place to dry on a baking sheet. Keep them in the refrigerator, and take them out a few minutes before serving.

Like many other Israelis, we also traveled abroad during this long (and very welcome) holiday season. Only that half of the reasons that made us go were bureaucratic (to issue my Romanian passport), the other purpose was to show Avi where I grew up, and for me to take a trip there, after a long time that I haven’t been. The previous time I’ve been there was in 2001, and the feelings I remained with were ambivalent. I remembered a city full of unfinished buildings that seemed like buildings’ ghosts, I remembered poverty, and I also remembered gloomy people all over. Other parts of the country, mostly the mountain parts, I remembered as so very beautiful and with very clean air. And finally I remembered all the great Romanian food, that I love so much - Supa de Perisoare (a slightly sour meat ball soup) or Cordon Bleu (sort of a schnitzel filled with melting cheese in the middle), or Cascaval Pane (fried Caciocavallo cheese) or Papanasi (wonderful Romanian doughnuts, served with sour cream and jam - divine!).

Before going there I told Avi that he’s gonna taste one of the world’s best kitchens. He really took my word for it, loving my Mom’s food so much, part of it traditional Romanian. When we got there we realized that most of the dishes I told him about contained pork meat, which Avi doesn’t eat… Avi ended up giving Romania “The Schnitzel Country” title, and we indeed ate there some great schnitzels, about one of them I’ll tell you in a future post.
Every trip of ours, deliberately or not, eventually turns out being mostly about food. And of course - so did this one. So those of you who plan on taking a trip there, here are the things, the way we see them.

The first thing I looked for were traditional Romanian restaurants. Actually, most restaurants there are traditional Romanian, except a few ethnic restaurants - we saw 2 Italians and 1 Chinese. A great traditional restaurant we’ve been to several times was “La Mama” (meaning “At Mom’s”), it’s a chain and has several restaurants in Bucharest, and everything we ate there was great. Especially recommended is their wholemeal bread (in the photo below), a wonderful meat balls soup, and an awesome schnitzel topped with corn flakes instead of bread crumbs. You will see mostly locals when you go there, they really love it since the portions are generous and the prices - reasonable.

Another restaurant that I couldn’t wait to get there already was “Carul cu Bere“, a restaurant located in a beautiful gothic building, and that is open for 129 years. I remembered it as a very good restaurant from when I was little. We actually found there a great Romanian eggplant salad and an oh so tasty mamaliga dish, served with cream, yogurt and chees (it was the second time Avi tried to taste and like mamaliga. The tasting part went ok, but he failed to like it, again…). Other than that, the rest of the dishes were pretty mediocre. But I think what dissapointed me most in this trip was to discover that I no longer like the Romanian kebab. I tasted it twice, and it seemed too salty in both.

After fulfilling my hunger to traditional Romanian food, I started wondering where does the pastry world stand in Romania. When we left Romania, in 1989, there really wasn’t much of anything, but the pastry shops there were very good and updated to the current world’s pastry trends. I was dissapointed to discover that the pastry shops there, most of them anyway, are still stuck in the 80s’. One great chain we’ve found there though is called “French Bakery”. We ate a perfect butter croissant and a wonderfully fluffy and rich chocolate chips muffin.

2 Recommendations we have regarding street food are the “Fornetti” chain and the little windows behind them stands a woman selling delightful Romanian doughnuts. On our first day we began seeing a lot of little Fornetti shops, a small line of people standing outside of each one. We didn’t get the fuss, but decided to try it, thinking that if it makes so many people happy, it can’t be that bad. We found there the most wonderful cheese filled puff pastry we’ve ever tasted (better even than the best burekas I’ve eaten in Israel), although there are various fillings, even sweet ones, all of them great!
The doughnut shops I knew from when I lived there back then, their divine taste hasn’t changed, just many various filling options have been added.

Coffee-wise Romania was a bit dissapointing. In other European countries such as Spain, France and Italy, every single espresso we drank was marvelous. In Romania we had a wonderul espresso on our second day there, at “Cafe Geisha”, a small coffee shop designed in a japanese style. We’ve tried in vain to recreate the success again.

I almost didn’t see any ice-cream shops in Romania. In the beautiful old city of Brasov though, I ate a wonderful ice-cream near the black church, a little over-priced but great.

We spent our last day there at Anca’s house. Anca is a very good friend of my Mom. While drinking our morning coffee we saw on TV a live broadcast from a bread market held in a park, not far from where we were. Of course we rushed over there! A lot of stands were arranged all over the park, selling bread and many related products. There was one stand where a lot of people stood in line for. Obviously I joined the line, thinking that the best bread is right there. Was I right! After a short period of about 5 minutes, and 4 RON (the Romanian coin) later, I had a wonderful bread in my hands!

You can find more photos from our trip on Avi’s blog. He wrote one post about street photography there, and there are 1 or 2 more to come.

Yesterday I started my patisserie course! I’m so excited, and it was so much fun, eventhough the whole day was theory only. Next time we’ll start doing the real things! I never imagined a class schedule can be so much fun!

And for dessert, I’ll leave you with a traditional Romanian cheese cake. The cake is very easy to make, doesn’t require a mixer or food processor, you can make all of it with just a wooden spoon. I made it for our good friends - Guy and Lisa, that came to visit.

Romanian Cheese Cake / Recipe from a Romanian recipes site
For a 20X30 cm rectangular pan

Ingredients:
For the dough:
7 Tbsp milk
7 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 flat tsp baking soda
350 gr (2.5 cups) all-purpose flour

For the filling:
500 gr ricotta cheese
2 eggs
200 gr powdered sugar
80 gr butter
2 flat Tbsp semolina
20 gr vanillated sugar (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
grated zest of 1 lemon
100 gr light raisins (optional)

Directions:
1. Prepare the dough: in a small saucepan heat milk, oil and sugar. When it starts to boil, remove from heat and let cool until just warm.
2. Move the mixture into a bowl, and add the egg, baking soda and the flour. Mix until a dough is formed.
3. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Roll out both of them on a floured surface into a rectangle of the pan’s size. Don’t worry, the dough is easy to work with.
4. Place one of the dough parts on the bottom of a pan lined with a baking sheet.
5. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
6. Prepare the filling: Melt the butter and cool it until just warm.
7. Add in all the rest of the filling’s ingredients, and mix until a homogenic mixture is formed.
8. Pour the filling onto the dough in the pan, and spread evenly.
9. Using a fork, make holes on the other half of the dough, then place it on top of the filling.
10. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top part turns golden.
11. Cool, powder with powdered sugar before serving.